A new collection of paintings by Croatian artist Duško Šibl opens at Unity Theatre today. New works will be added through the month as Šibl develops Time, a multidisciplinary live collaboration with Momentum Theatre, local film-makers and musicians.

What is the concept behind your new collection?

My work is concerned with human figures in movement. My latest pictures are inspired by Momentum’s inventive choreography. I realised that some of the theatre’s ideas are very close to mine.

Have you collaborated with other disciplines before?

I have done something similar before, but far less ambitious – an orchestra on one side of the stage and me on the other, without any real interaction. If we want to make this project work, we will all have to respond to each other.

If you could stage a fantasy collaboration with any artists, alive or dead, who would you pick?

The glib answer that springs to mind is The Beatles. I was raised in a communist society and some remnants of that are still there, so I’d pick Bertolt Brecht’s theatre company, with my favourite painter Francis Bacon and Ken Russell to direct it all.

You’ve said that the colours in your paintings change with your moods. Is there any direct correlation?

When I am in the north of Croatia, my colours are more subdued, with a lot of black and grey as I am quite melancholy. When I am in the south, my colours go very bright, especially since I’ve got a studio on the Adriatic coast.

How does the arts scene in Croatia compare to the UK?

Croatia is still asserting its artistic identity. There are two main ways of thinking: the cosmopolitan, international art, which in some aspects follows the trends in the UK, and the art based in the local tradition. In some cases, it creates split personalities. Artists in the UK don’t have that problem.